Gossip & Seafood @ Robson Heights Seafood Restaurant, Kuala Lumpur

crabbie time again....yums!

Catching with friends over dinner is always more fun especially when the food is awesome. Last Friday (defying all odds that it was an unlucky Friday 13th!), we all made it safely to Robson Heights Seafood, chosen for its highly lickable salted egg yolk crabs. I was first introduced to these luscious crustateans last year by Lyrical Lemongrass who is a regular here.

large water prawns + glass noodles = great prawny tasting slurpy soup

Perched on a hill, this place is easy to spot especially if you are chugging down the Federal Highway in one of its infamous traffic jams, where time stands still. Even though it was a Friday night, I made it within 1/2 hour from Shah Alam - a miracle indeed. The specialties of this place is not hard to spot, as the enterprising restaurant has them printed on their wet towel packets. Since I did do some research on this place (after some prompting by Precious Pea, who was hungry at 5pm!), I ordered the pork ribs, which Kampungboycitygal raved about. Also added the interesting sounding fried intestines with dried prawns.

very lickable salted egg yolk encrusted crabs

The pork ribs came in a jiffy (the kitchen is definitely super efficient here!) with meat that was falling off the bones. I felt it was just a tad sweet probably because we ate it on its own vs with rice. The fried intestines was a big dissapointment - not crunchy and lacked much taste even though they did laden it with lots of dried prawns and chopped green cili padi.

We got lucky with the claypot glass noodles with water prawns, which turned out to be the winner of the night. Usually, the norm is to order the black pepper udon and since it wasn't available, this was recommended by the waiter. Filled with large water prawns (3 pieces sliced into 2 for the 6 of us), the soup was rich from the prawn roe making the glass noodles slurpworthy.

The crabs were the finale of the night with us attacking the very lickable salted egg yolk encrusted crabs. While the steamed crabs were large and sweet, it would have been better with more liquid vs egg as the crabmeat was a little dry inside. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful meal especially catching up with everyone. For more on what we demolished that night, see my Flickr set.

Restoran Robson Heights
108, Jalan Permai
Off Jalan Syed Putra
Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03- 22746216

(Non Halal. Place is parallel to Federal Highway. To get here, go up the Brickfields ramp on the highway, turn right at traffic lights, go straight and take a left at first traffic lights. Go straight, do not turn left back to the highway, you will see the restaurant on your right hand side.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.

Tagged with: seafood + Malaysian food

Other reviews:

• Kampungboycitygal
• Very Sedap!!!
• Stephenblog

Sushi Buffet @ Mizu, TTDI Plaza, Kuala Lumpur

claw your way here for a relaxed buffet..

The long weekend was a great break, we caught up with friends and family for very long lunches and dinners. Filled with lots of great food and fun, I reckon I have enough to keep all of you entertained for quite some time. Before I launch into today's review, I received a nice update from Sunny Lim who informed me that Krispy Kreme fans don't need to wait long. The first outlet in Berjaya Times Square should be rolling out its first sweet and sticky glazed doughnut next month. Can't wait to go try the sugar laden goodie even though I'll be away for the first week of April.


"order as much as you like" nigiri sushi

Back to today's review, been a while since I blogged about Japanese food that I am definitely suffering from withdrawal effects. Mizu in Bangsar Village has always been my regular dining spot. Food is always great and we have our regular favourites; the super tender beef cheek, mizu special roll, saba shioyaki, thick cut salmon sashimi with sweet and delicate dobin mushi. I first heard about the buffet from

Klue's website, hence I asked the people in Bangsar's Mizu, what it was all about. The sushi buffet is on for Sunday (lunch and dinner) and unlike the other places in town, here you pick what you want from a list of items. It reminds me a little of Iketeru's buffet also but unlike Iketeru no limit on how many orders you place at one time.


grilled shishamo fish with treasure within...teeny weeny eggs

Priced at RM100++ per pax, not a lot of people are queueing up for this buffet and surprisingly the people patronising it are the Japanese. When we dined here, we only saw 3 tables ordering the buffet and we were the only locals. The start you off with the first course and the 2 most expensive items - toro (tuna belly) and uni sushi, which can only be ordered once followed by the soup of the day. Then it is up to you to select from a list of items that range from snacks like edamame, a large variety of makis (handrolls or cut ones), vegetables, grilled items, sashimi, tempura items and etc. Seperate pieces of paper will be given to you to fill up what you like for nigiri sushi (chutoro, maguro akami, toro binchou, kanpachi, madai, shime saba, sake aka salmon, sake harasu tataki, aori ika, hokkigai, tako, ebi, nama hotate, kani kama, amaebi, akagai, aji, kinmedai, hirame, hamachi, mekajiki, mentaiko, unagi, tamgo, inari, shime kohada, ikura, negitoro and tobiko). We had a lot of food since there was 3 of us eating - shishamo fish with its cholestrol laden eggs, loads of buri (a type of yellowtail) sashimi, salmon sashimi, salmon carpaccio, makis, grilled cod, oden, fried beef, deep fried oysters, unagi and etc, etc, etc, etc. To view our gluttony, see the Flick set.

our favourite buri sashimi, each order gives you 3 thick slices

The verdict on this buffet - it is good for those who like to relax rather than fight with people or queue up for their food. Here you order in a leisurely style and also eat in an easy pace. However, the list that you have to choose from features only the dish's name and its Japanese name, so those unfamiliar with Japanese terms will be very confused and find it difficult to order unless they keep asking the wait staff. Freshness is definitely better here with grilled and deep fried items delivered straight to you after it comes out piping hot. The price of it will also deter a lot of people but considering the first course of toro and uni sushi will already set you back for RM50 here, it is still a good deal. While most of the items were fresh, one item fell foul with us was the binchou butsugiri as it was a little too soft and flaky for our liking. Another thing we didn't like was communicating with the service staff especially getting a booking was very painful as they don't seem to understand English very well. Note also they seem to give you an extensive selection for nigiri sushi and makis vs sashimi; I reckon this is just to fill up your tummy quickly with rice.

Mizu
C-2-1 TTDI Plaza
Jalan Wan Kadir 3
Taman Tun Dr Ismail
60000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel No: 03-7728 6498

(Pork free. Call ahead to book a space as the service staff seems confused if you don' book ahead even though you won't find it fully occupied. Price is RM100++ per pax. You will also be charged for any wastage. Discounted prices are also available for kids.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.

Tagged with: buffet + Japanese food

Japanese Food @ Kirishima, Dua Annexe, Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur

pick from the Japanese inscribed paper for Kirishima's specials

I have been very slack (head down in shame!) in posting.....very sorry, readers. Work and getting ready for the party for Xmas has meant, I abandoned the blog for a whole week. Yikes, very bad habit indeed. I don't even have pictures of the Xmas party spread, as I was so busy running around getting ready, collecting the turkey, preparing desserts the whole day (the lemon sabayon tart went down well plus the Valrhona white chocolate mousse) and etc, that we didn't get there in time for the party.

dobin mushi, madam? my fav clear soup filled with mushrooms, leeks, gingko nuts & chicken

During the long long break, we did get to relax and check out new places to eat, so I have a lot to blog about. On my list of to do places, has been Kirishima at the newly opened Dua Annexe, opposite US Embassy on Jalan Tun Razak. Located just next to Delicious, Kirishima is part of the restaurant chain, which also owns Ninja Jones and Yuzu at the Gardens, Mid Valley City. What made visiting them very attractive during this period, was their opening promotion discounts (valid till 31 December, 2008) - 10% discount for set meals, 15% discount for a la carte, 15% for chef recommended sashimi fish and 25% discount for shabu-shabu.

7 kinds of chef selected sashimi (RM98 for 2 pax - RM83 after the 15% discount)

Since we didn't get a booking at the hottest place in town at the moment (aka Tenji, the mega Japanese buffet, which you can eat till you literally roll out of the door) and it was fully booked during the long break, we opted for this instead. Eventually, we did 2 visits here, after we discovered the promotional prices and brought my mother here to try the food.

silky smooth cold beancurd

For our first visit here, we zoomed in on the sashimi moriawase (7 kinds of specially selected fish) - really good stuff but don't ask me what they served since I am a dunce with Japanese names. I did spot salmon, scallop. clams, snapper and etc. The next day, when a friend ordered the same thing, they were given a different selection, which had toro (tuna belly). We also had a cold tofu, something I preferred compared to the agedashi tofu they serve here with eggplant. A wagyu beef sesame salad was added - nice and refreshing together with my favourite soup - dobin mushi.

juicy and succulent wagyu saikoro steak

For our second visit here, we tried the sets - I had the really value for money Kirishima Gozen (RM48) and my mother had the Saba Shioyaki Set (RM25). My Kirishima Gozen set was packed with goodies ranging from a small portion of wagyu saikoro steak, 3 varieties of sashimi, 3 varieties of sushi, tempura moriawase, dobin mushi soup, assorted pickles, fried beancurd, a piece of chicken and fruits for dessert! Everything was very good except that piece of chicken, which tasted like it came out from the fridge hard and unappetising. My mother's grilled saba fish was also good - a pretty decent sized fish, which was juicy. Splashie Boy had a bigger version of Wagyu Saikoro Steak, which looked much better than the Wagyu Ishiyaki Steak.

If you are around that neighbourhood, go check out that place, tucked at one corner. It sports chandeliers (weird in a Japanese restaurant), Japanese fabric curtains and lots of mirrors plus one wall of those salt lamps in front. They also do an izakaya style spread for dinner (pick from the counter the food) and serve oden (a set for 2 pax) here. You may want to skip desserts here (the matcha tiramisu looks like an ordinary cream cake!) and head next door for Delicious' desserts instead. For more pictures of the other items we ordered, you can view the Flickr set.

Kirishima Japanese Restaurant
Lot 1.2, First Floor

Dua Annexe
211 Jln Tun Razak
Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2162 8127

(Pork free. Open from noon to 2.30pm, 6-10pm daily. If you are coming from the Smart tunnel, this place is just after Bombay Palace and next to Dua Residency, before the Singapore High Commission.)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

Tagged with: Japanese Food + Dua Annexe